Rewinding the clock of fly fishing blogging, you may recall a blog with an attention drawing name, Eat More Brook Trout.
EMBT was the conservation, trip reporting, gear reviewing, and creative writing outlet for Chris Hunt, a freelance writer, award-winning journalist, and author of multiple books on fishing.
Chris was very active in the “wild west” of our outdoors blogging community, not only through his prolific writing, but also by encouraging and propping many of us up through exposure on his blog. His “20 Questions” interview series was always an extremely fun and interesting read as we learned a little more about folks in the outdoor community than perhaps their public personas provided. Heck, he was even generous enough to interview me once. (I’m not sure exactly what he was thinking).
While the original EMBT is no longer, Chris never stopped writing, advocating for conservation, and has even begun making angler’s fly fishing dreams come true through travel. Curious about that last part? I know I am.
Okay, let’s catch up with Chris Hunt…
Chris, what have you been up to over the last ten or so years?
A little bit of everything, honestly. From finishing up almost 17 years of work with a national non-profit to a three-month odyssey to the Arctic and now worldwide travel, things have been busy. Three years ago, with a couple of business partners, I helped start Hatch Adventure Travel, a worldwide travel and adventure booking company. We’re growing steadily, and it definitely keeps me busy. In just three years, I’ve been to Patagonia, Alaska, the Yukon (twice), Labrador, Iceland, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, the Bahamas, all to vet new destinations so we can effectively sell them to clients.
And, while the old Eat More Brook Trout blog was allowed to fade away (my boss at the time considered it a conflict of interest), I’ve kept writing, largely for Hatch Magazine, but also for other publications, including the Flyfish Journal, the Bonefish & Tarpon Trust Journal, Northwest Fly Fishing, American Fly Fishing and even my local newspapers here in eastern Idaho. Just recently, I’ve started a Substack, which is proving to be entertaining.
My girlfriend and I built a small house in the woods of north Florida to serve as winter HQ, but we haven’t been able to pull off more than a month at a time. I fell in love with the blackwater rivers of the area and, of course, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge — if you don’t think there’s wild country in the Southeast … well, then, you’re right. You probably shouldn’t visit.
Do you miss the fishing blogging community at all? Have you kept in touch with anyone from that bygone era?
I do miss blogging (but I think Substack will scratch that itch) and the pretty unique fly fishing blogging community. Some of those blogs have gone on to become real forces of nature in the fly fishing media world (Hatch Magazine is certainly an example of that), and to be around during the embryonic stages of that movement was incredible.
I likely gave in too easily when my employer pressured me to stop writing — I often wonder what would have become of EMBT if it were allowed to mature and grow. I’ll never know, but I do know that the cream of that community rose to the top, and some of the folks who were blogging then are now very influential in the fly fishing industry. And good for them.
These days, I still make a bit of my living by blogging, but not for me. I work for a few select brands that need blog content for digital marketing purposes, mostly (but not all) in the fishing and travel space. And I’m always looking for new work.
And if you’re using AI to craft your brand’s blog posts, the devil’s on his way.
Are you still fishy? Do you still find time to fish? If so, how often, where, and for what?
That’s like asking if I still breathe air. Yes. Still fishy. But my fishing is more nuanced these days. First, I’m now 55 years old. I have a bad back, bad knees, bad ankles and a bad shoulder. So, I do fish less. But I would say my fishing, in general, has been more rewarding than it was, say 15 years ago. These days, I get to fish for mouse-eating browns on remote Patagonian rivers deep in the Valdivian rainforest, or for giant northern pike miles from anywhere in the Yukon. Or sea-run brown trout Iceland, permit in Roatan, tarpon in Belize … you get the idea. Now and then, I’ll sneak down to the local carp flat or take friends in a remote creek in the mountains near home, but, mostly, my fishing accompanies passport stamps, which is pretty cool.
I found most people wrote their blogs as a personal journaling exercise or a creative outlet. What’s your creative outlet today?
This is going to sound odd, but I really like to talk to people about fishing in some of the most far-flung places out there. I mean, I had pretty much resigned myself to never catching an Atlantic salmon, and if you asked me 15 years ago where Roatan was, I would have had to have Googled it. Today, I’ve done these things, and now, I get to help others do these things, too. It’s an absolute rush to be able to talk to someone about what it’s like to make the horseback ride into the River of Dreams, or watch the Northern Lights dance over Iceland.
Yes, I still write. Almost every day. And I have a couple of more books (at least) in me, so I’m not going to stop writing. But I’m finding myself more content with the interaction that fly fishers are so good at — we are a unique breed of people. Sure, there are assholes everywhere, even among the long-rod community. But, for the most part, the camaraderie of anglers trumps the douche factor that sometimes rears its ugly head.
So my creative outlet today? Coaxing anglers to take that next step and try something new and different. We really do only live once. If you’re a passionate fly fisher, and you’re not experiencing the world with a fly rod in hand while you can still cast it, what the hell are you saving for? Chemo? A new hip? Get out there, folks. The world is a great big place…
I’m interviewing you today. Is there anybody from outdoor blogging’s past you think I should track down and interview next?
That’s a really good question. Blogging helped me develop some lifelong friendships over the years — guys like Brandon Robinson (One Bug is Fake) and Mike Sepelak (Mike’s Gone Fishing’ … Again), Steve Zakur (Sipping Emergers) and Mark Payne (The Perfect Drift) are honest-to-God friends. And, if you look hard enough, you can find some of those old Blogspot posts still out there — there was some good shit that came out of that era! I’d love to hear what each of these folks is up to these days. And, of course, Troutrageous … Man, those were the salad days.
Is there anything you’d like to add that I didn’t ask you?
Nah… but it was nice to travel down this old, forgotten rabbit hole. Thanks for the chance, Mike.
Finally, assuming you’d want to be found, where can some of your old blog friends find you today?
I’m not too hard to find, but, in case you’re interested, my new Substack is a good place to start, and you can check out what we’re doing on the travel side at Hatch Adventure Travel. We literally have world-class experiences for every budget. Don’t believe me? Try me.
Many thanks to Chris Hunt for “Catching Up With…” us today.
Post Script: If you’re wondering why I’m interviewing these random people, or just what “Catching Up With…” is all about, visit this page for a brief backstory.